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Of the three main ways to play the piano, solo piano is probably the most difficult. The reason is because you only have two hands, but you need to play all 3 elements (melody, chords, and bass notes). There are many ways to do this, which can be mixed and matched.

The best way to approach solo piano is to become very proficient with all the basic tools of music; scales, arpeggios, chords, rhythms, reading, etc., and then practice making up arrangements from melody and chord symbols with:

1. R.H.melody L.H.chords and then 2. R.H.chords L.H.bass 3. Then you’ll be ready to work on solo piano.

If you’re a beginner, you should learn several solo piano pieces before trying to make up your own arrangements. There is a vast amount of sheet music available with full grand staff arrangements for piano which will give you ideas that you can use for your own arrangements.

The basic idea is have the melody in your right hand be the highest note, and fill in notes from the chords under that. The left hand would commonly play roots in octaves or roots & 5ths or broken chords (1-5-10) or roots and 7ths.  The left hand could also play walking bass or other bass parts, depending on the style of music.

It is common to practice one hand at a time and then both hands together.

Once you’ve got the basic tune, the next step would be to add fills and then practice improvising the melody line (take a solo).

The end goal is to be able to look at piece of music that has only the melody and chord symbols and be able to instantly make up an appropriate arrangement. Of course an arrangement can further develop over time.

For more information see my eBook “For Piano & Keyboard Players Only”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that!

I’ve been a piano teacher for over 25 years and I’ve heard countless people say, “I love the piano, I wish I could play,” or “oh, you teach piano, I used to play piano,” or “we had a piano when I was a kid,” or “I wish my mother had forced me to practice,” or “I never learned to read music, I always memorized what my teacher played. When she found out, I was in trouble!”

Of course studying music is a wonderful activity for a child. Whether he/she goes on to a career in music or not, it is still highly recommended. Numerous studies have concluded that children who study music do better in school. In general the world needs more art and music and even if one wasn’t interested in becoming a professional musician or making a living at it, playing music is a good thing!

The main point is, however, you can learn how to play music anytime. You don’t have to be a child to learn. I’ve taught countless people to play who never played as a child. In fact, often adults learn faster than children!

One can get many hours of enjoyment from the music. It really doesn’t take that long to get some satisfaction. Anyone can learn to play a song fairly quickly. Anyone can even learn to improvise (play by ear)! Whether you like Classical or Jazz, Rock or Pop, you can learn to play.

It has been said that the piano is the most important of all musical instruments. It is certainly the most versatile. I do think that it is a good idea to learn some skills on a keyboard even if you play sax or you are a vocalist.

The main point here is that it has been proven to me countless times with firsthand experience that anyone can learn to play well enough to have fun making music.

Good News!

Music: [< Old French musique, from Latin m?sica < Greek mousik téchn? art of the Muses < Moûsa Muse < Greek Mythology, oneoftheninegoddessesofthefinearts and sciences]

(1) MUSIC is a language. (2) AESTHETIC communication that uses SOUND as its medium1. (3) an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental and/or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner. (4) MUSIC can be divided into three parts: MELODY, HARMONY, RHYTHM. (5) any rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic grouping of sounds that is specifically composed and that forms a unity so as to convey a message, to communicate, or to entertain. 2

Musician: a person who creates MUSIC. Someone who plays, performs, composes, arranges, records MUSIC.

Musicianship: skill in creating music: His musicianship increased markedly after studying full-time for 6 months.

Musicology: the academic study of MUSIC and its history.

Music Theory (Theory of Music): information about how MUSIC is put together, for example; the subject of music can be divided into three parts: Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm.

Melody: notes played or sung one at a time Harmony: two or more NOTES played together.

Rhythm: the temporal3 element of MUSIC relating to how sounds are made into patterns.

Note: (1) a SOUND of a definite PITCH. (2) a symbol that represents a musical SOUND.

Pitch: refers to the FREQUENCY (speed) of vibration which determines how high or low a SOUND is in relation to other sounds, pitch is one of the three elements of SOUND.

1 Medium: a method or means of doing something. 2 Def. #5 of Music: from Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/ 3 Temporal: of or relating to or having to do with time.

Sound Advice for Learning Music

by Bill Keis

1 Aug 11

If you want to ‘make music’, there are definite things that need to be learned. However, you don’t need to master all of them to have fun with music.  There are many examples of ‘famous’ musicians who have very little training.

Obviously, you don’t have to learn all the words of the English language before you have your first conversation.  Similarly, you can learn a few simple things and begin to make music in a just minutes. Then, depending on how far you want to take it, you can continue to learn more.

So, where do you draw the line?  How much should one study?

Well, you could take it to extremes and try to learn every possible combination of notes, which is a staggering number!

According to Nicolas Slonimsky1; there are 479,001,600 combinations of the 12 notes of music!  Learning all of them would of course take way too long.

Frederick Chopin2 said, “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” 

So, my advice is to keep in mind what you want to communicate with your music.  What style(s) do you like?  What songs?  Then proceed to learn enough to be able to play &/or sing that.

As you go along, you might find new songs or styles you like.  Then you can study more  to play those.

Whether you are just starting out or an old pro, my series of eBooks will give you a cornucopia3 of data and practice techniques you can use to improve your understanding and ability with the various elements of music.

If you want to improve your skill so you can play new things, check them out!

Good luck and happy musing4.

1 Nicolas Slonimsky: Russian-American musicologist; b. St Petersburg April 27, 1894, d. Los Angeles December 25, 1995 author of the book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (1947).

2 Frederick Chopin: Polish pianist and composer; b. Poland March 1, 1810, d. Paris October 17, 1849.

3 Cornucopia: an abundant, overflowing supply.

4 Musing: a made-up word meaning, playing music.

thanks, that’s great news-Bill

OK, so I’m guilty of using a play on words (you know the song “Teach Me Tonight”)

Anyway, in this blog category  I will talk about teaching, students, etc….

For questions related to my books, please use the Q&A blog category.